Welcome to Secret Breakfast / An exclusive newsletter, the best place to start your day with sad news, missing fathers, and the unforeseeable link between food and goodbyes

Hi there!

Many “regular” sections of this newsletter and some color will be missing today. I’m sorry about that.

The reason is I’ve unexpectedly lost my father and I think that “something missing” is the most appropriate mood for this Tuesday, the day of his funeral.

Piero

␥

THE BEST QUOTE

✦ Gordon Ramsay, this one is always a good reminder if you come from a family of restaurateurs.

⎚

THE MISSING INGREDIENT

BRIEF HISTORY OF MY DAD
AND THE 100-YEAR-OLD FAMILY RESTAURANT

My father’s name was Paolo. He had a stroke a few days ago: one moment he was enjoying his stay in the Italian countryside, one moment later he was talking nonsense to his sister about a party of 12 to be served quickly. He talked shop even during his final hours.

My grand-grandfather Pancrazio opened the family restaurant in Rome in 1922; his sons Pietro and Mario followed; then it was my father’s turn and he brought the firm to its 100 anniversary, through the Pandemic and the lockdown. Then he quit.

Our family served the “commoners” of the popular Campo de Fiori market, but also presidents, future Popes, friends, and sports legends. We have a book with cycling champion Fausto Coppi’s autograph, a pen gifted by the American vice-president George H.W. Bush, and a sketch of a pyramid by the architect Ieoh Ming Pei (Louvre anyone?).

We witnessed Italians laughing at Japanese travelers taking pictures to their plates in the Eighties, then we cooked for the 21st Century food bloggers and their cacio-e-pepe live streams.

When you live in a restaurant like that you have no private life. The place itself is your life.

I assume my father had a tough existence even when things went well and 'I’m sure he had thousands of sleepless nights when things were unimaginably hard. That scared me enough to try something different in life from the family business. That also made me feel how much strength a father must find to protect the ones he loves.

I took from him the passion for cooking, hospitality, and the idea that some places are better than others because they can simply make your life more meaningful and leave us with good memories.

Being in the food business is not just cooking, but taking part in people’s lives. One should do that with love, as my father taught me in his more challenging lesson.

Picture: Ristorante Da Pancrazio in 1922.

❍ OnlyPans
This is where Secret Breakfast picks juicy content from food creators

Last week I linked Apple TV+’s French-Japanese series Drops of God. Now I’ve watched the whole series under embargo and I really liked it. Was it because it begins with a father saying goodbye? No, I don’t think so. You should enjoy that and be prepared to spend a fortune on wines.

Ⓡ

RANDOM ACTS OF HUNGER

This is the space where I share some food (un)related stuff of my week, but it’s been a very bad and intense week, then bear with me

✋🏻Food + Grief Project publishes recipes, stories, personal essays, interviews, and food memories about where we experience grief in food 🥐11 Best Bakeries in Rome for Italian Pastries, Desserts, and High-End Bread 👑What to Make of King Charles’s “Coronation Quiche” 👩🏻‍🍳The New York Times’ 20 Most Saved Recipes of All Time (★recipes) ⚱️The Role of Food in Death and Grief (part 1 and part 2)

⌇⌇⌇

FOOD FOR LATER

‘Everybody’s So Creative!’ and the Rise of the Recipe Reactions
Amelia Tait / Wired

“It’s no longer news that disgusting food videos on TikTok are intentional rage bait, designed to rile up viewers and gain comments, shares, and views for creators. Yet while no one eats the food in these ridiculous recipe videos, they do feed an entire online ecosystem”.

➤ Last week's most clicked link was the one about the 17 Best & Worst New Grocery Store Snacks, According to a Dietitian. And that's all for today.